I created this little white dessert palette for her with little meringue kisses, coconut cupcakes and lemon meltaways. Distance will not allow us to be together on her birthday but I want to wish her happiness on this special day.

Cream together butter, sugar, zest and vanilla. Add lemon juice and mix. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Form the dough into a log that is about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap it in parchment and refrigerate it overnight.

Cut the log into 1/2 inch disks and bake at 350F for about 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool slightly and roll in powdered sugar while they are still warm.

Meringue Cookies

50 grams egg whites50 grams sugar50 grams powdered sugar, sifted

In a bowl, whip the egg whites fully until a light meringue forms. Slowly and while whipping, sprinkle in the granulated sugar and let it whip to stiff peaks. Stop whipping and fold in the sifted powdered sugar. be gentle not to deflate the meringue too much.

Place the meringue in a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (number 5) and pipe little meringue kisses onto a sheetpan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 175F (or lower if your oven permits it) until dry. You should be able to lift it from the pan without sticking. Store in an airtight container.

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94 Responses to “A White Birthday”

Nadia sure deserved to be spoiled and all these are as precious as she is!Oh you are going to laugh…I made dark chocolate coconut cupcakes and dark chocolate crinkles for a birthday…ahahah! Did you ask your mom about the long lost cousin yet?!!

i just had an idea. your friends birthday goodies look like a wedding birthday—-so i thought, when i get married, i’m going to force my blogging friends to design the menu. oh yeah. you be team leader. hehe. that way everyone would blog about my wedding, on the same day! i’d be more popular than a daring bakers challenge, or a dorie challenge, or the other ones….hehehehehe.

Not only are these confections absolutely beautiful in their artistry, they are making my mouth water. I wish I was your friend who likes white and has a closet full of fabulous dresses and gets amazing sweets for her birthday!

Aran, this is my favorite post of yours. I love white and every shade myself. If I didn’t have a messy husband and a dog that jumps up on the chair when I am not looking, I would have a white on white home. Instead I enjoy a white bedroom. Everything about the desserts is just stunning.

Hi! This is a wonderful blog with beautiful pictures! It smells through my screen, really! My boyfriend’s a baker and we work on opening a little bakery in our small town in Quebec, Canada. It it so inspiring, although we won’t have a lot of pastries! Thank you very much! I’ll put some photo of yours on my own blog. You’ll can see some picture of our bread and venoiseries, I wish to take a photo course to make mine more luminous.toujoursdimanche.blogspot.com (in french)

I am just about to try baking the lemon meltaways. I was inspired by your post and decided to give them a shot for my guests who are coming for dinner tonight. I hope that the cookies do not require a full night of refrigeration. I will do about 6 hours.

hi aran!I would just like to ask you how the texture of meltaways should be? i haven never eaten them before but i have made theses from your recipe twice, the taste is great but i think i dont have the right texture? how is it supposed to taste like?

Hi! I have been meaning to write for a couple of weeks. I was directed to your really rather stunning site via a gluten free site. For that reason I just assumed all your recipes were gluten free (oops!). So I made the lemon meltaways with this in mind and misread ‘… grams of flour’ for gram flour. I actually ground down chickpeas to make it!! Low and behold the cookies actually turned out delicious, and a great alternative.